Like Mother, Like Daughter
by Nemesis13
Summary: Taylor triggered when she listened to her mom die in a car accident over the phone, this changed a great many things. Blaming herself for the accident she takes up her mom's torch of political activism, standing up for her ideals, outsmarting everyone else for personal amusement, and flirting with every pretty cape in the room. Danny didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
1. A Weaver's Tale Begins

**Taylor triggered when her mom died, blaming herself for said death she threw herself into becoming a hero in a somewhat naive attempt to make amends for something that was not even remotely her fault, but she would never see it that way. **

**End result, she always asks herself what her mom would want her to do, this creates a staunchly independent, proud teenage girl who doesn't stand down from any challenge.**

**As Danny would always lament with a smile on his face, like mother, like daughter.**

**Also side note, Taylor teasing Armsmaster into bantering was a lot of fun to write and more or less why this exists.**

* * *

When Colin got the call to head towards the docks in order to assess the damage done by Lung during a full on rampage he, well... inwardly cringed a bit. While he wasn't all that great at dealing with people he was not a full on sociopath, and seeing the damage that psychotic rage dragon could do to a residential area was not something he wished to relive again.

Three times was enough for the hero known as Armsmaster, thank you very much. Why that monster, along with the likes of Hookwolf and Oni Lee did not have Kill Orders on them was just something he chose not to dwell on. That had been Dragon's suggestion, she said that making himself angry about things he had no control of would only give him heartburn, and he trusted her advice so yeah...here he was...

So as his motorcycle sped along the street and took a right turn at an absolutely ridiculous speed and angle thanks to the absurdity of tinker tech, he found himself coming up short as he took in the scene before him.

Rolling to a stop his visors sensors enhanced the vision of the aftermath of a full scale running battle; the surrounding buildings were destroyed, while the road and side walks were mostly melted into discoloured glass, thankfully the thermal scan indicated that it was cooled down to safe enough levels to approach. There were destroyed cars and other detritus littering the area, and directly in the middle of this devastation rested a comatose dragon and a masked teenager resting on one of his forearms.

The hero was wearing a skin tight navy blue catsuit adorned with heavy chitinous looking black armor, the ominously glowing yellow lenses of her mask turning away from her phone as she met Colin's gaze. The only part of her body exposed was her voluminous black hair, the curls of which blew in the winds as she raised a clawed gauntlet in greeting while calling out to him.

"Armsmaster, good evening and nice to see you! I had a pun about how to maim your dragon, or Puff the omnicidal dragon and the like planned but it just seemed too cheesy to me. So, hey, took out Lung, wee."

Colin sighed and did his best not to laugh at her deadpan tone, there was a reason this girl was one of Hannah's favorites despite the teens staunch refusal to join the wards.

"Weaver, a good evening to you as well. It appears you have been busy."

She pocketed her phone in one of her chest plates many compartments while kicking off Lung and turning to view the slowly deramping dragon, "Yeah... I... I really have nothing here sir, he was talking about killing some children so I sent my swarms at him and his men. They ran, he didn't, ended up trying to bide my time while my black widows and brown recluses did their magic. That is to say poison him in absolutely horrific ways that I would not wish on my worst none regenerating enemy. Even then if the Undersiders hadn't shown up and bulldozed him with their demon dogs I'd very likely be fucked at the moment."

Colin sighed yet again, "Language young lady, and the Undersiders?"

Weaver held a clawed gauntlet up to her shoulder while bracing her other hand again her elbow, gently fidgeting her foot through the debris littered ground, "Sorry sir, and...umm, it ended up that the Undersiders were the children Lung had been talking about. They felt like they owed me one for distracting him and ran interference until the poison finally took hold, after the fact I also...err...never mind."

She turned her head to the side and even masked she seemed a bit abashed, he was now even more curious.

Colin raised a concealed eyebrow while drawling out, "You also what?"

She tapped her clawed fingers to her mask a few times then let out a sheepish laugh, "I also got Tattletale's phone number..."

"What," was all that Colin could say in response.

Weaver shrugged while shaking her head slightly, "I quipped out something like 'I hate it when you leave me but I love watching you walk away,' and a second later she turned around and jammed a post-it note in my hand, kissed my mask and sauntered off."

"I...I can't even...why?"

"Have you seen her ass in that suit? Cause villain or not, _damn_."

Colin ran a hand down his face while shaking his head, "She's a teenage girl."

"So am I, and I must say, ten outta ten, would ogle again."

Turning away from the menacing looking, and apparently smitten vigilante hero he shook his head while approaching Lung with his new tinker tech sedative in hand, "Middle aged men who ogle under aged teenage girls end up on watch lists you do realize."

Weaver nodded as she followed him while retorting with, "True true, but you can appreciate beauty without being a perv."

"Tell that to the courts," he stated dryly, she laughed in return.

"Right right, hey umm, that's that sweet sciencey magical sedative you talked about cooking up the last time we tangled with Hookwolf right?"

"Yes," he stated while readying the injector.

"Uh... Lung's immune system is kind of dealing with like...a dozen different strains of lethal venom in rather copious amounts at the moment...would that kind of...kill him if his regeneration was subdued?"

Colin froze as he was about to stick the injector between the rage dragon's steel scales, and lowered his hand while muttering, "Damn... I hadn't even considered that..."

Weaver patted his shoulder while shrugging lightly, "Why would you? How often have you had to dose a fucking dragon that had about eight liters of necrolyzing poison running through them?"

He turned to the teen cape slowly while tilting his head head to the side, "Language... and... How many of those spiders do you even have at this point?"

She shrugged again, "Sorry, and not nearly as many as I did before I took on Smaug, but enough to have another spidery airdrop of doom on anyone who properly annoyed me. Anyway I'll leave cleanup to you, but first, wanna take a selfie with me making sure the dragon is in the background? Good publicity, and all, and I _am_ willing to share the glory since...I have... hmm, yes...really, absolutely no idea what I would have done with him if you hadn't showed up when you did."

Armsmaster stared at Weaver for a moment, then let out a snort as he pulled out his phone, "Sure."

* * *

The next morning found Taylor at school, yawning widely as she walked down the halls of Arcadia, not for the first time cursing the Faraday Cage the building supported as her cell phone signal cut out. Which meant no more texting with Tattletale which was something she had actually been rather enjoying, they'd been playfully harassing each other for the past two hours and to be just cut off like that felt like a bit of a tease.

"Why the hell does this school even shield against EM signals it isn't like its gonna stop a laser or a brute thrown bus," she griped, then squeaked a bit in surprise when her best friend sidled up to her side while drawling out a response.

"The illusion of protection is just as important as the image of authority... At least that's what Carol says."

"Don't do that," Taylor muttered as Amy rolled her eyes while bumping her shoulder against her own.

"Oh stop, it isn't like I snuck up on you, didn't have time for coffee this morning, did you?"

Taylor groaned while shaking her head, "No, I slept in and dad had been long gone to work so what was in the pot resembled goopy tar."

Amy smiled and pulled her hand out of her hoodies pocket holding a can of Star Child salted caramel latte, "Here, I already had one this morning."

Taylor made an excited sound that only dogs could likely hear as she snatched up the offered can, popped it open, and downed it in record time earning a giggle from her friend as she crushed the now quite empty container while letting out a quiet burp. Blushing she tossed the can into a waste bin while muttering out, "What would I do without you?"

"Lets not find out, it wouldn't be pretty, so why did you sleep in? Not really like you."

Looking around to make sure no one was watching Taylor pulled out her phone and opened up the last picture she had taken the night before, of Weaver and Armsmaster giving the peace sign with a cross eyed, drooling comatose dragon laying on the ground behind them.

"That," she stated flatly, and her friend could only blink owlishly for a few moments before gripping the bridge of her nose while shaking her head slowly.

"You...you and Armsmaster took on _Lung_ last night?"

Letting out a hesitant laugh Taylor shrugged slightly while muttering, "Uh no...I kind of took him on by myself and he showed up afterwords to help me deal with the body, sign of true friendship there..."

Amy came to a dead stop and glared at the raven haired teen as the source of her ire sheepishly glanced to the side, "What."

"Heh...umm...funny story..."

"I'm listening," Amy stated dryly.

Taylor faltered a bit before eventually letting out a resigned sigh, "Look I overheard Lung saying he was gonna off some kids, so I sent the swarm at him to chase him off, it only made him angrier though so I had some wasps and locus air drop my widows and recluses on him and well...things escalated until he was down for the count."

Amy stared at her at for thirty seconds, let out a sigh, kissed her cheek then grabbed her hand dragging Taylor on, "What in the world am I going to do with you?"

"Err...don't tell my dad his daughter is an idiot and keep being pretty and awesome? Please?"

"Really, that's all you have?"

"I, err... won't call Vicky's aura 'Weaponized Narcissism' in front of Brandish again? Well, at least for a couple of months."

Amy froze, then tilted her head to side in contemplation, "You know, putting it on the blocks like that, does that make Accord Weaponized OCD?"

Taylor shrugged at that, "With that frame of thought you could claim that Uber and Leet are Weaponized Murphy's Law really."

"Huh..valid point...why was I annoyed with you again?"

"I drank your last coffee and don't have the cash on me to repay you for it, but I will tomorrow."

"Right, don't do that again," Amy stated as Taylor grinned and grabbed her friends hand guiding her down the hall humming lightly, doing anything and everything to make sure no one noticed her in the process.

Anne-Rose had after all taught her daughter the art of misdirection early on, and Taylor had long ago become a master of the art.

* * *

**If I continue this it'll later be explained that Taylor's desire to make her mom proud meant she attended Arcadia instead of following Emma to Winslow, which changed...oh so many things.**


	2. Lunch Time With Lunatics

**So this had an overwhelmingly positive response I had not at all anticipated and rather than giving in to my shock I'm just grinning at the fact I've actually written a light hearted story in such a dark universe without having to delve into my usual misanthropic humor. Oh and to the guy who complained about Taylor being a Mary Sue for mentioning the sedative side effects to Armsmaster, she's best friends with the worlds most renowned healer and has two years of experience with her powers over her cannon self. She's thought this shit over at one point or another and having Amy to discuss it with helps immensely.**

**Oh, and Taylor's relationship with Armsmaster, Miss Militia, and the Wards will be explained next chapter hopefully, suffice it to say they're on good terms for the time being. End result of the idiot ball being torn away from the administration.**

**Anyway, written in about an hour, I need to get ready for work, enjoy! **

* * *

It wasn't until lunch when Taylor was seated with Amy and Chris on one bench, with Dennis, Dean, and Vicky sitting across from them that her friend sprung her trap.

Well, not so much _trap_, more along the lines of calling Taylor on her bullshit, which while inevitable, was still annoying.

Amy faux coughed into her hand while turning towards Taylor speaking in an innocent tone, "So, are you going to give us the details on you taking out Lung last night?"

Taylor froze as she was about to bite into her sandwich, her friends all pausing and turning as one to assess her.

Dean looked worried, Dennis looked amused, Chris looked resigned, and Vicky looked put out.

"Uhh..."

"You really shouldn't have posted that picture on PHO if you didn't want anyone to know," Dennis stated with a smile.

"Taking on Lung of all people by yourself was just irresponsible Taylor, you might not officially be part of the Wards but you are one of us in heart and spirit if not fact," Dean said with a shake of his head.

"Seriously Tay I'm going to have to modify more than your HUD if you're going to keep doing this sort of thing," Chris muttered.

"You should have called me, I always wanted to fight a dragon," Vicky stated with a pout.

Shooting Amy a death glare, that she blithely ignored, Taylor let out a resigned sigh as she ground out, "First off fuck you Dennis, I got a picture with Armsmaster giving the peace sign for crying out loud, how could I not share that?"

"Language," Dean said knowing perfectly well he would be ignored, and he was.

"Touche," Dennis stated with a nod towards Taylor.

"Second, I was under the impression Lung was hunting down children...not my super sexy future wife."

"Future wife?" Dean muttered, but was once again ignored.

"Third off... Yeah...you're totes right Chris, and fourth off Vicky if I could have had you with me tag teaming that son of a bitch trust me, I would have. Trust me, Armsmaster already chided me on the whole taking on A class threats without backup thing."

Taking in a deep breath, she turned back towards Amy, "And you need to have more faith in me, I can resolve my own problems perfectly well thank you very much and I don't need you guilting me into being safer while on patrol."

Amy stared at her a moment before shifting her gaze towards Vicky, "Really, you don't have any issues regarding throwing yourself or following others into dangerous situations without any sort of planning?"

Taylor's eyes narrowed, "No..."

Amy sighed and asked, "What about last month? I think it was the fifth?"

Taylor's eyes widened, then her gaze shifted towards Vicky, and then both of them winced.

"Well..."

* * *

**One Month Earlier**

_Taylor Hebert was not a girl who escalated conflict out of personal amusement, she simply followed the aggressive string of actions performed by others, deduced where said actions would land them, and reacted to the perceived end result._

_Unfortunately she was best friends with Amy Dallon, which meant she by proxy was friends with her foster sister Victoria Dallon, which meant they partnered up often enough for random patrols out of convenience more than anything._

_This meant they were a known factor to the local criminal element as heavy hitters and tended to frequent the shittier parts of Brockton Bay together, and had acquired a bit of a reputation over the past year._

_A reputation that tended to lead to quite a bit of collateral damage and grievous, if nonlethal injuries. No one wanted to double down when facing both Glory Girl and Weaver, neither of them were known to be gentle on their opponents and they had a tendency to compete with each other on the most creative ways to take them out._

_So on one dreary evening, when the pair had stumbled on a massive drug deal orchestrated by the Merchants, Glory Girl did as she always did when confronted with a situation that affronted her._

_She charged through the door laughing manically without a plan in mind in a cloud of splinters and dust as she punched the first thug to aim a rifle at her so hard that it sent him flying across the room._

_Weaver let out a weary sigh as she ordered her bugs to converge on the various drug dealers and mercs, mostly aiming to affect their vision and just generally freak them the fuck out as she drew her pistol and charged into the building blind firing._

_A few moments after entering said building the wall behind her exploded as someone shot a crate of whatever the hell tinker drugs were stored in it sending Weaver flying and she shortly landed in a rolling heap. Groaning she stood up and shook her head as she watched the ensuing chaos, and let out a huff of annoyance. Lining her pistol's sights up to one of the terrified mercs she aimed for his left leg and pulled the trigger, and...nothing happened._

_"VICKY I FUCKING HATE YOU!" Taylor screamed as she worked the jam on the slide of her Glock 19 shortly followed with popping the magazine noting it had seven rounds left._

_"BWAHAHAHA!" Was the only response she got from the blonde as she swung a panicking merc out of a window._

_Slamming the magazine back home Weaver sighed as she holstered the pistol and pulled a pair of grenades from her belt, shrugging she muttered, "Fine, fuck it," and after pulling the pins tossed the flash bangs into the middle of the room taking cover behind an upturned table._

_Pulling out her batons and extending them with a flick of her wrists she paused until her grenades exploded. Weaver cocked her head to the side to crack her neck and jumped over the table to begin beating skulls in._

_The fight in total lasted five minutes, it was kind of disappointing really._

_"Sooo...where's the loot?" Taylor asked as she poked one of the groaning Merchants with her toe._

_Vicky waved while happily calling out, "Over here! Wow...that is a lot of money, someone is going to be pissed off about this one."_

_She sounded more and more cheerful as she stated that, typical Vicky._

_Taylor grabbed a bandanna off one of the comatose thugs and used it to wipe the blood off her batons before collapsing them and shoving them back into her belt, discarding the bandanna she approached Vicky and paused as she saw the massive stacks of bound bills before her._

_They stared down at the veritable fortune and eventually Taylor spoke up, "So... we either do the right heroic thing and call this in, have the cash taken to lock up, and inevitably it disappears, or..."_

_Vicky cocked her head to the side and drawled out, "Or we pay off college for you, me, Ames, and a down payment on a condo before that even becomes a thing to worry about."_

_Taylor nodded, "My scruples are quite flexible, I see no problem with easing the BBPD's ongoing personnel issues by lightening the amount of evidence they have to process for such a large sting."_

_Vicky had found a duffel bag somewhere and was already shoving the money into it, "It's a public service really."_

_Taylor nodded solemnly, "It is a great burden we bear but someone has to do it."_

_Zipping up the bag Vicky stood and stared at the various broken thugs who were groaning in pain around them, then got slightly serious as she glanced over to Taylor._

_"How should we call this in if we're keeping the cash?"_

_Taylor was quiet for a time, then nodded, "We don't, the gunfire was pretty indiscriminate which means someone had to have called the police. You fly me out of here and we stash the cash someplace until things cool down, then... Well we tell Amy about it and after she bitches us out we let her decide how we launder it because lets face it...she's smarter than either of us."_

_Vicky was silent for a time, then nodded smiling, "Right!"_

_A week later Amy stared at her sister and best friend, both girls looking sheepish as they presented the mountain of dirty money before her, and uttered the only thing she could possibly think of to fit this situation._

_"What. The. **Fuck!**"_

* * *

Taylor winced, then muttered, "Hey look at the time class starts in 45 minutes, better get moving and-"

Amy rolled her eyes as she reached out, grabbed Taylor's arm, and pulled her back down to the lunch table bench while muttering near silently, "Why do I always fall for the dense ones..." Letting out a sigh she succinctly stated, "I am not nagging you Taylor, I just worry about you."

Taylor fidgeted a bit then nodded, "Right...ummm... No more fighting rage dragons, and when I'm on patrol with Vicky I'll..." Vicky raised a brow, and Taylor could only shrug, "I'll make sure nothing bad happens to her? I guess? I don't know what you want from me here please help me?"

Amy face palmed while Taylor fidgeted some more, neither noticing Dean and Vicky shooting them bemused looks, nor Dennis and Chris muttering about bets and odds.

It was after all, just another day in Brockton Bay.


	3. Overly Patient Friends

**So first off, not digging for sympathy so no reason to offer platitudes and the like, I'm just stating this as an explanation.**

**My favorite aunt died, like an hour ago, my mom is falling apart, my drunk of a father is no where to be seen, likely at a bar, and I just needed something amusing to keep me focused for what is turning out to be a very long week. Yes, I punched this out in a half hour, but I did the best I could to focus on the whimsy of my aunt's sense of humor in this thousand words, if you don't like it, well, your lose.**

* * *

Taylor was not in a good mood when school let out, namely because she knew for a fact no matter what she was going to get an earful about last night's poorly thought out misadventure from her dad and Hannah when she got home if what her friends were saying was being plastered across PHO was true, and that was just…so goddamn unfair.

Not that she had ever been delusional enough to even contemplate, much less take for granted that there was anything resembling 'fairness' in this life.

If there had been her mom would still be alive, Nazis being the most reasonable alternative to the legitimate government wouldn't be a fucking thing, and Lord's Port would be a thriving commercial hub rather than a rotting ship graveyard.

So even though she was rather self-assured that she had in fact been in the right to intervene on the Undersiders behalf when Lung had completely and utterly lost his shit at the docks the night before, well…

"Stop moping."

Taylor grinned, and then glanced towards one of the few people who actually _got_ her in this life while simultaneously forcing herself not to let out a tired sigh.

Amy was…a gift. Seriously she understood the expectations that were dropped on her shoulders, knew that no matter what she did they were unobtainable, and never condemned her for her lapses in judgment.

Honestly, Taylor didn't think she deserved the young woman as a friend.

"I'm not moping it's just that… Well…"

Amy rolled her eyes as she drawled out, "You've been lurking on PHO every moment you can get an outside internet connection and you are quite aware of the fact that there is no hiding what you got up to last night and thus are freaking out because you _know_ you're getting grounded for taking on Lung."

Taylor scowled a moment and remained silent for a time before muttering, "I should not have taken that selfie with Armsmaster…"

Amy scoffed, sighed, and then hugged Taylor before letting her go, "No, you really should not have, but it's in the past. Look I have to get going to the hospital, see you tomorrow?"

Taylor sighed and nodded as she turned towards the bus stop, her fingers lingering on Amy's as she broke their embrace while muttering, "Yeah, alright… Be safe, please."

"Always," Amy whispered as she turned away from the only true friend she had ever managed to make on her own while being silently thankful for the fact that Vicky wasn't around to air express her to her destination, she needed the time to think.

Amy huffed and muttered, "Hormones suck…" as she lost sight of her friend walking away into the distance.

* * *

The walk to her bus stop and following ride had been boring, the walk to her house more so, and when she got home Taylor managed to hop and skip across the walkway and the poorly repaired porch steps easily avoiding the booby traps Hannah had set up for any fool dumb enough to tail her.

Taylor grinned at that thought while shaking her head slowly, sometimes your dad dating your childhood idol whose super power was _guns_ caused weird shit to be a rather constant background thing you had to accommodate for.

Life was fucking awesome/weird like that.

Ditching her bag at the door Taylor plopped down on the couch, turned the TV on, and then promptly proceeded to ignore what the talking head on the screen had to say while dozing off. A bit later she faintly noticed the front door opening, and after a tense moment did not bother to track the intruder in her sanctum of solitude once her bugs, pardon, SWARM OF DOOM, got sight of them and remained silent as they passed her and entered the kitchen.

Trying to remain in something resembling a Zen state Taylor cracked an eye open when a weight landed next to her head on the couch and the scent of lunch meat and lavender wafted her way. Tilting her head slightly she noticed a pair of plates bearing sandwiches landing on the table before her with a brief clatter, turkey and mayo, no cheese, she had to go shopping again it would seem.

Sighing she tilted her gaze upwards to view the intruder in her sanctum of solitude as they laconically chewed on the bite of sandwich in their mouth before swallowing it while very obviously doing their best to remain calm.

"So," the redhead in the Imaculata school uniform drawled out, "Lung huh?"

Taylor groaned as she shifted her glasses up and threw her arm over her eyes while muttering, "Et tu Emma?"

Her childhood best friend poked her forehead a moment causing Taylor to wince as she drawled out, "Yes, now, seriously hero, Lung? What the fuck?"

Taylor blindly reached out for the sandwich Emma had made for her, and once her friend had properly guided her hand to retrieve the white bread clad bounty took a large bite out of it to dragging on her part in the conversation via chewing slowly.

It was childish, yes.

"Stop stalling."

All while proving ineffective...

Taylor didn't pout, but it was a close thing.

Swallowing her mouthful of bread and turkey Taylor dropped her head into Emma's lap and quickly stated, "Ok, I was minding my own business wh-"

"Bullshit," Emma interrupted.

"I was!"

"Right, what happened whilst you were minding your own business?"

Taking another bite of her sandwich Taylor eventually cleared her throat and continued with, "Well I was patrolling the docks and my bugs overheard Lung talking about killing some kids, one thing led to another and I ended up in a running fight with a rage dragon and it sorta kinda all sorts of sucked. I won though! That counts, right?

Emma was quiet for a few moments before letting out a tired sigh, "Was there a cute girl involved?"

Taylor scoffed, "I don't see what that has to do with anything."

Emma dropped her head to let it rest on the back of the couch while muttering, "OK not cute, hot, Christ. OK what happened next?"

Taylor pouted, and then sighed as she began her explanation; honestly having friends who understood and anticipated your thought processes was just…tiresome...and amusing.

"OK on a scale from one to ten, her ass? Totes a twelve."

"Of course," Emma stated while rolling her eyes, "and at what point did that orphanage catch on fire?"

Taylor blinked in honest confusion while muttering out, "What orphanage?"

"Goddamnit Taylor..."


End file.
